opportunity
for our
people
Mirelle Pennings,
Global He ad
Human Resources
BANKING SPECIAL CLIENT LEADERSHIP
36 issue 19 THE WORD
cross-sell business on the basis of its
financing deals. This was certainly true
when Rabobank Antwerp was asked
to participate in Belgian brewing
giant InBev's acquisition of US peer
Anheuser-Busch. Walter Debacq,
Rabobank's relationship manager for
AB InBev, used the invitation from AB
InBevto take on USD 1.25 billion oftheir
financing facility to introducé a wide
range of product departments before
taking this further internally. "We then
made it very clear to AB InBev that if
we were to participate, we expected
to strike some deals in these product
areas. AB InBev was very keen to get
us on board, partly because of our F&A
knowledge, especially in commodities.
However, I believe the key to the deal
was that the product people were
able to show where Rabobank could
provide added value," Rottjers says.
This made AB InBev comfortable
working towards a level of cross-sell
with Rabobank that fits the credit
ticket. "We're still in the middle of
this, but we've already scored
substantial interest hedging business,
the co-manager position in a US and
Eurobond issue and, very recently,
sole bookrunner in the Netherlands
for a EUR 150 million retail bond issue."
The final piece of the puzzle, Treffers-
Herrera says, is reviewing your
performance with your clients, warts
and all, each year. "You have to sit
down with them and look at where we
hit targets and where we missed, and
why. This is also a perfect opportunity
to look at what the client's strategy
will be for the next 12 months - v
both what their goals are and what
they anticipate their financial needs
to be in that period. Then it is vital to
"Human Resources has an integral role to play in the success of our
revised strategy. To make our Rl focus work, we have to have the
right people in the right place and to do this, we have to develop
their knowledge, competency and leadership skills through our talent
programmes to prepare our people for new roles. Importantly, we are
launching initiatives to encourage mobility and help people expand
their horizons and develop a broader set of skills. We want our staff to
actively broaden their horizons and learn about different parts of the
organisation and the specific competenties those businesses require.
This knowledge can be shared with our people in other parts of the
organisation. We'll always need specialists, but one of the keys to
increasing cross-sell is having employees who have worked in different
parts of the bank. Thinking across business or product lines is how we
break down the barriers - the sort of silo thinking that has, in the past,
limited cross-sell."
"Achieving this with a lower budget is a challenge, but at the same
time it does mean you focus much more on the development of your
own people, rather than looking for external candidates. This creates
more opportunity for our staff and l've found that ifyou're prepared
to challenge people and offer them opportunities you might not have
in better days, you can uncover some unexpected potential. We have
a lot of untapped talent in this organisation and I think we'll now see
much more of that potential unleashed."